TV Schedule

A unique solar powered community in Canada


  3. goldenways
  4. related topics
The Drake Landing Solar Community is the first solar powered community of North America. Located in the town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada, the project sets a wonderful example of how every household can lead a sustainable lifestyle. There are 800 solar panels located throughout the community on garage roofs, and they produce 1.5 mega-watts of thermal power during a summer day and supply heat to the district heating system. The whole system meets 90% of the annual heating and hot water needs of the homes.

The 52-home solar community has installed an array of solar panels on the roofs of their houses and garages. Glycol solution runs through an insulated piping system, or collector loop, that connects the array of solar panels. The solar panels absorb the solar energy during the daytime and heat the glycol solution. The glycol solution travels through the collector loop and reaches an underground heat exchanger within the community’s centralized Energy Center. The heat is then transferred from heat exchanger to the water stored in a short-term storage tank. The glycol solution returns to the solar collector system. The Energy Center has short-term thermal storage tanks and long-thermal storage tanks (Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system).

During the warmer months the heated water is transferred to the underground borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system via a series of pipes. The water heats up the surrounding earth increasing the temperature to 80 degrees C (176 °F). The water returns to the short-term storage tanks to be heated again. The heat is stored underground insulated with sand, high-density R-40 insulation, a waterproof membrane, clay, and other landscaping materials. The stored heat is used to provide heat and hot water to the entire community throughout the winter.

The homes are moderately sized, ranging from 1,492 to 1,664 square feet, and have low energy demands, suitable to work with the system. The homes are located close to one another, which provides a walkable neighborhood, and reduces the lengths that the fluid for the solar heating system needs to travel. Water conservation has been made mandatory in the homes. The homes have been built using locally manufactured materials, and recycled material too has been used in construction. The homes will be certified to Natural Resources Canada’s R-2000 Standard for energy efficiency, and the Built Green™ Alberta program. The precedence set by the Drake Landing Solar Community can serve as an example for every community.


http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/07/24/a-unique-solar-powe...

link to The Drake Landing Solar Community website
http://www.dlsc.ca/index.htm
goldenways

9 responses // A unique solar powered community in Canada

  • California better keep up or I'm moving to Canada. Great post goldenways.
    MrBigShot21
  • every new apartment community in the capital college town i reside in should apply these concepts... maybe making it THAT much cheaper for the students to live in the over-priced shoddily constructed paper-thin walled student ghettos that keep popping up everywhere... At the very least, applying green methods will offset some of the effects of destroying natural eco-systems to build crappy apartment homes.

    One more reason to love Canada & hate on the empire located to the south
    superfinet
  • mmmmm......... sustainable lifestyled
    canadian bacon
    phukna
  • It should be a requirement for every new home to be solar powered.
    jimenagamio
  • I hope the energy crisis we are in promotes this technology. It would be nice to turn the environmental problems around and bring back the forests described in Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm. Even young children wonder why we do not use solar power.
    thetrimsmith
  • solar nanotechnology has a great site that describes a new spray on solar application. They're getting about 1/3 the energy of conventional solar, but what a future. Americans can become energy efficient and free from the need of any outside fossil fuel if we want to.
    schmedly
  • Thank you schmedly for highlighting that company's technology!
    ebdotkom
  • And they wonder why the power industry hasn't jumped on this. It not only redefines they industry but slows down all that money they have rollin' in.
    otheleon
  • Moving.
    onechance

Add your response

Login/Registration is required to add a response.